Assam rout Goa with allround effort

Assam routed Goa, dismissing them for 99 to win by an innings and 177 runs with a day to spare at Guwahati. Vasanth Saravanan, who scored an unbeaten 109, added 95 for the sixth wicket with Anand Katti to take Assam to a commanding position, before captain J Arunkumar declared at 410 for 8. Faced with a daunting deficit of 276, Goa hardly looked like saving the game, as Sujay Tarafdar and Abu Nachim Ahmed reduced them to 36 for 4. Only three batsmen managed double figures, with Sugan Kamat top-scoring with 35. Katti, the left-arm spinner, picked up three wickets in a 10-over spell.

Buoyed by Paras Dogra's 115, Himachal Pradesh outclassed Jharkhand by 342 runs at Dharamsala. Faced with a daunting target of 424, Jharkhand capitulated for 81 on the third day, seamer Vikramjeet Singh finishing with impressive figures of 4 for 16 while offspinner Sarandeep Singh chipped in with three wickets. Earlier, Dogra registered his highest first-class score, taking Himachal to 283 in their second innings. Shahbaz Nadeem was the most penetrative bowler for Jharkhand, finishing with figures of 4 for 77.

Healthy contributions by the lower order helped Vidarbha gain a first-innings lead of 55 against Kerala on the third day at Palakkad. Samir Khare (40), Madhusudan Acharya (31) and Chandrashekhar Atram (53) frustrated the bowlers to take their side to 346, an improvement after they lost half their side for 191 at the end of the second day. Kerala, in their second innings finished at 70 for 1, led by former India opener Sadagoppan Ramesh who remained unbeaten on 49.

Led by their seamers Taduri Sudhindra and Anand Rajan, Madhya Pradesh fought back against Railways at the end of the third day to set up an interesting finish. Railways lost their stranglehold on the game after they crashed to 120, with Tejinder Pal Singh the only batsman to offer some resistance, scoring 55 while Sudhindra and Rajan pegged away, taking four wickets each. However, Madhya Pradesh stumbled in pursuit of 266, losing four wickets for 79 at stumps. Jai Prakash Yadav was at his miserly best, taking three wickets for just five runs in 14 overs.

Orissa went on the defensive at the end of the third day at Cuttack, adding just 190 runs to finish 85 runs behind Services' first innings score of 346. Resuming on 71 for 2, Orissa were in a spot of bother when their overnight batsmen, Subit Biswal and Niranjan Behera were both dismissed with the score at 99. After a brief recovery, they were pegged back further at 151 for 6, before H Das (56*) and Debasis Mohanty (47*), the former India fast bowler, added an unbeaten 90 for the seventh wicket.

Jammu and Kashmir 128 and 88 for 4 need 200 more runs to beat Tripura 156 and 259 (Khajuria 6-71)Scorecard

Jammu and Kashmir were in trouble at the end of the third day at Agartala, losing four wickets for 88, chasing a target of 288. Tripura, after beginning the day at 129 for 4, were restricted to 259 after Sameer Khajuria, the offspinner, took a six-wicket haul. Jammu and Kashmir stumbled early in their second innings, losing two early wickets by the fifth over.